Over time, resistance machines for use during exercise have been developed in which the weight can be dynamically modified, i.e., during the execution thereof.
One of the goals is being able to optimize each repetition by giving the user more weight at the negative part of the repetition, than at the positive part thereof.
Naturally, everybody has more strength in the negative part than in the positive part.
For example, in the case of a sit-up exercise, the negative part is when we go from a sitting position to a prone position (resisting the weight) and the positive part is when we go from the prone position to the sitting position. In other words, it is when we are lifting the weight or overcoming resistance. The problem with any conventional machine, which cannot offer the user different weights in each part of the repetition, is that it causes the user to reach up to a point of muscular exhaustion when he or she cannot move the weight at the positive part, even when he or she had the extra strength for continuing at the negative part.
The present invention proposes solving this problem by changing the resistance very quickly during each repetition. For example, in a sit-up with weight, the user can select two weights, a first weight when going down (negative part) and a second other very different weight when going up (positive part). The apparatus of the present invention changes between the first, which can be made in fractions of a second. The user can also choose exactly the point in which he or she wishes to make the weight change (resistance), creating with this the infinity of variants in the exercise routine.
A wide variety of equipments are known in the related technical field. However, the majority of the exercise apparatuses do not allow the user to perform exercises with variable resistance with precise and immediate changes in the resistance during the execution of the exercise. Furthermore, there are no exercise apparatuses known which allow the user to use a variety of commands using brain and/or brain waves, or with respect to any body movement detected by the electronic devices, for changing the resistance found during an exercise. Currently, in the state-of-the-art exercise apparatuses, the user has to stop the execution of an exercise, to vary the resistance produced by the apparatus. The applicant only knows variable resistance systems that use voice commands in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,572,213 and 7,413,534. These two patents are property of the present applicant.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,572,213 B2 and 7,413,534 use a pneumatic resistance system, which comprises a piston and a fluid storage tank (air), to generate a variable mechanical resistance during the course of exercise. However, the main problem with the system of U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,572,213 and 7,413,534 and with any other type of pneumatic or hydraulic machines, is that every time the user requires more mechanical (weight) resistance for executing exercise, the piston employed needs to take air from the pressurized air storage tank, or when the user requires a weight reduction, the system has to release air to the environments which creates an enormous waste of air. This implies various disadvantages, which are, among others, the following. The compressor has to work constantly. As a result, there is a need for a compressor of great volumes and a storage tank also with great capacity. Anyway, even when having such a compressor, the user would always have to wait a few seconds to allow the system to become completely charged, to the point where it is able to begin exercise and for changing the weight (resistance) either lighter or heavier.
Furthermore, in case of emergency, there is an air waste in the pervious systems, which results in energy waste, which is used for powering the compressor used to load air to the system.
This problem is solved in the new system of the present invention, as, in one embodiment, the piston is always charged with a fixed pressure pre-established by only being automatically air recharged, if it would loose some pressure. Therefore the invention of the present application generates the mechanical resistance (weight) to the user, by means of a piston connected to a carriage running along a cam arm forming a “simple lever”, as the distance of the piston with respect to a determined point is varied.
Another drawback of the inventions described in previous patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,572,213 and 7,413,534, is that in case of emergency, when performing the emergency command in any of the embodiments, such as when the body remains still in a certain position for a fraction of time, the air takes some seconds to exit. This is very undesirable. In the new system of the present application, the mechanical resistance changes, from a maximum resistance to a minimum resistance. This happens in a range of only a fraction of a second.
Unlike the previous patents' systems, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,572,213 and 7,413,534, with the present invention, the user can choose in which section of the negative part or positive part (at the middle, at the end or at a determined percentage) he or she wants to start having the weight change and in how much time he or she wants such weight, change to be made. The possibilities are infinite regarding the exercise combinations of routines of the user.
Another advantage of the present invention over the U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,572,213 and 7,413,534 is the piston rearrangement. In such patents, the piston is located in the carriage which connects at the same time with the arms of the system. This vertically limits the positioning of such arms and of their rotation, point, as the lower vertical limit for displacing the arms is the stop that exists between the piston rod and the base or the system floor. With the relocation of the piston, a lower limit, which is much lower than the piston rod stop and the system base do not exist. This fact allows an increase in the amount of exercises that a user can perform, because the relation between the rotation point of the arms and the body of the user allows the user to execute the exercise appropriately.
Furthermore, and, in contrast with the previous patent systems, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,572,213 and 7,413,534, the present invention makes it easier, in mechanical terms, for an improved precision and accuracy in the mechanical resistance (weight) that a user experiences. Because of the mechanical disposition of the elements thereof where, a linear relation between the variation of the weight that the user experiences and the number of strains contained in a guide screw, improved performance results will be explained in greater detail in the description that follows.
Likewise, and, in contrast with the previous patent systems, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,572,213 and 7,413,534, the present invention, by providing the previous linear relation described between the weight variation experienced by the user and the number of strains contained in the guide screw, it makes it easier to obtain the engineering calculation for optimizing the system. As in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,572,213 and 7,413,534, the algorithm used for calculating the weight variation experienced by the user is very complex due to the mechanical and thermodynamic factors found in such systems. Therefore the present invention solves the previous problem by providing a mechanical disposition in which the mechanical resistance (weight) experienced by the user is linear in relation to one mechanical factor.
On the other hand, in prior art systems, there is the spatial limit for increasing the maximum weight of an exercise apparatus for increasing the number of weight plates and discs. For example, if the apparatus consists of a total of 20 plates of 10 kg each, the maximum weight for exercising would be of 200 kg. If the user wished to exercise with a weight of 300 kg, this would require the equipment to be disassembled for changing the plates to 15 or 20 kg each, which would be very complicated. The previous technical problem is solved with the present invention, only by increasing the volume or the piston load.
Furthermore, there are also presently individual machines of integrated weight (with plates), for example the “X-force” machine, which suffers from the technical problem of waiting a specific time for the weight change to be made. Another disadvantage is that the weight limit, either lower or higher, is that contained in the machine from the manufacture, i.e., the plates set.
Furthermore, there are individual machines with fluid-base weights or solid-base weights, for example, the brand “srdfitness”. These machines do not make an immediate weight change as the fluids take time to pass from one side to the other and, their solid weight versions (which are still in development), are limited in that the maximum weight for the user is the weight already in the machine. In the present invention there is no such limit as the maximum weight can be substantially increased by increasing the volume or load of the piston.